7-22-96. NYP, Page One: "Microsoft Sees A Major Shift For Computers." John Markoff MS is preparing to release new software that would bring the most fundamental change to personal computers since the machines were invented in the 1970's. Demonstrated last week and to be distributed free to the public, the software is designed to blend the multimedia technology of the Web with Windows 95. PCs would treat each parcel of material as a document with all the stand-alone capabilities of a Web page. Each of these documents would have hyperlinks so that the creator of a document could make it available for reading, listening or viewing anywhere on the Web. "This is going to make enormous changes possible," said Jesse Berst, editor of Windows Watcher. "It's analogous to the advent of the automobile." "We're moving into a new world; we now have a new metaphor," said John Seely Brown, director of the Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center. A potentially troublesome aspect to Microsoft's new thrust is the extent to which it will further blur the distinctions between data that sit safely on a person's own computer and data flowing around the Internet. While certain measures of privacy and security control are built into Microsoft's current and planned software, it is still working to develop better security for Internet software. ----- http://jya.com/shifty.txt SHI_fty